The Enrolement of Trade apprentices within the borough of Dorchester

In Mayo's transcription there is no order to the apprenticeship records. The date the apprentice was bound is given in most cases as a regnal year (i.e. 7th year of the Reign of Charles I)
The abbreviations used were:- Jac= James 1st or Car= Charles 1st. Car II= Charles 2nd : An added complication is that the year started on 25th March not 1st January
I have therefore added the actual year in brackets and placed all entries in date order.

General background Information about Apprenticeships

Extract from the Dictinary of Genealogy by Terrick VH FitzHugh Revised edition1988 published by Alphabooks Ltd.

Apprentices:- Apprentices were of two kinds:-

Trade apprentices:- By the Statute of Labourers and Apprentices of 1563 it was enacted that no person should exercise any of the crafts or mysteries at that time exercised in England, unless he had served an apprenticeship of at least 7 years. Previously, a similar arrangement had been laid down in some towns in corporation by-laws, but even when it became law, the Statute applied only to market towns. It required that the boy must be over 10 years and under 18 years of age, and that his apprenticeship must last until he was at least 21. He must be the son of a freeman, not 'occupying husbandry', and not a labourer. The master must be a householder, at least 24 years of age, and exercising an art mystery or manual occupation.

In corporate towns, special conditions applied to merchants, mercers, drapers, goldsmiths, ironmongers, embroiders and clothiers. They could only be masters of either their own sons or the sons of a parent (father or widowed mother) who had an estate of inheritance or freehold of forty shillings per year or more. This qualification had to be certified by three justices of the peace living where the property lay, and then be presented to the mayor, who had to enrol it in the corporation records. This property qualification was probably intended to ensure that the boy would have the means to set up for himself when he became free. In small towns the apprentice might come from another town within the county and in such cases his parent had to have an estate of sixty shillings a year. many other trades including the following were under no conditions: bricklayers, brickmakers, burners of ores and wood ashes, carpenters, coopers, earthen potters, fullers, limeburners, linenweavers, millers, millwrights, plasters, ploughwrights, rough masons, sawyers, Shinglers, Slaters, Smiths, Tilemakers, Wheelwrights, and woollen weavers of household cloth. By a statue of 1702/3 a boy of 7 or more could be apprenticed to a shipowner, a fisherman, a ships gunner, or a shipwright, for ten years or less.

Poor Apprentices:- parish Officials also put out apprentices under the statute of 1563, but most of their activities were governed by the Poor Law Act of 1601. churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor with the consent of two Justices of the Peace were empowered to apprentice to a trade or husbandry any child under the age of 16 whose parents they judged not able to maintain him, until the age of 24 in the case of a boy, and 21 or marriage in the case of a girl. masters failing to provide for the apprentice or carry out conditions of the indenture could be fined by Justices of the Peace with appeal to the Quarter sessions.

Genealogical notes:-
(1). Richard GILLINGHAM was curate at Lillington from 1602 until he became rector 1617-1638
(2). Richard SAMWAISE (Samwayes) BA from Corpus Christie college Oxford 3 July 1593; MA 5 Mar 1596/7 Rector of Wemworthy Devon 1608; Vicar of Ilminster somerset 1609 - had a son Richard Samwayes also went to Corpus Christie mat 2 Mar 1631/2 age 17 & later became Rector of Meysey Hampton Gloucester until death Aug 1669
(3). Henry COMBE of Dorset Pleb Hart Hall Oxford matriculated 14 march 1599/1600 aged 17 rector of North Marden Sussex 1609; of Tollard Ryall Wiltshire 1610 father of Henry who matriculated Magdelen hall 7 Nov 1634 aged 19
(4). This entry does not have a date but it follows the entry given above in the listing
(5). This is Samuel WHITE the son of the Rev John WHITE the Patriarch of Dorchester
(6). This is Josiah TERRYinvestor in the Dorchester Company
(7). Tohbie MARLER Clerk fil Balliol College Oxford matriculated 15 dec 1592 aged 20 BA 5th July 1595;Curate of St Mary Magdalen Ruishton Chapel Taunton 26 July 1620 Licenced preacher Taunton deanery 1621; Vicar of Creech St Michael 1627 until his death in 1641
(8). Henry SMITH, Clerk deceased not so far identified
(9). This is reputed to be William WHITE the son of the Rev John WHITE's deceased brother
Josias WHITEby his wife Anne.